Public participation dynamic purchasing system (DPS): equality impact assessment

Executive summary

The Public Participation DPS will enable policy areas across Scottish Government to identify, recruit and engage with Service Providers that have the skills and expertise required to design and deliver high quality, inclusive, innovative and ethical participatory activities and engagements.^[1]

The ambition for the DPS is to support person-centred approaches that actively seek to improve current inequalities, result in policies and services that better meet peoples’ needs, and see those who are seldom heard and furthest from decision-making more routinely involved in the development of decisions, policies and services.

It is considered that a high level equalities impact assessment is required for this policy.

The DPS will influence how government will engage and enable the participation of individuals (including those with protected characteristics) in government policy and decision-making. It will also influence the suppliers that will be identified by Scottish Government as having met standards of quality to directly support the implementation of this.

The DPS is intended to facilitate participation, and will be structured to support equalities and those with protected characteristics by helping enable high quality and more consistent forms of government-led participation that promotes inclusion and diversity.

The full impact on protected characteristics as part of work commissioned through the DPS is not known, and will be dependant on individual call off commissions. As a result, information available to inform this EQIA is limited.

It will be expected that where necessary, individual call off commissions carry out equality impact assessments where more detail can be provided. Completing an EQIA is required when developing new and revised policies affecting people. It is the Scottish Government’s legal duty to assess our policies and their impacts, and subsequently publish and share the results.

It is proposed that once the DPS is in operation and a sufficient level of work has been commissioned through the DPS, the DPS Manager will review the EQIA in light of any further equality impacts observed, as well as courses of action that could be taken to address these.